Chapter 300
Title: Interlude — Kimi's Perfect Run (3)
[Chapter Cover Picture]
—
It was a dazzling sunny morning in the season of spring. As far as eyes could stretch, it was green everywhere, excluding this small lake located in the middle of the forest where Kimi Sugihara was currently in.
Kimi was wearing purple sleepwear while observing the morning, sitting beside the window of a small wooden house that was located beside a beautiful lake. She watched the scenery outside, where birds chirped to themselves, and a gentle wind blew from the west.
Slowly, Kimi sipped green tea from a cup made of hardened mud.
This scenery outside was unfamiliar to her, as she was more used to seeing cherry blossoms in spring, rather than this absolute peaceful green. However, that was to be expected since this wasn't Japan she was currently in; rather, a small country located in the Indian Subcontinent, the country of greens that was Bangladesh.
["Save me… young master."] A deep yet feminine voice sounded out in Kimi's head, attempting to copy her own voice, making her frown in annoyance. ["You know, when you said that line six months ago I thought you'd actually break. But here you are, sipping tea peacefully in a country where nobody would come to find you."]
As the Red Dragon Emperor, Draig, explained her thoughts in Kimi's head, Kimi smiled a little and blew a breath outwards the window, causing a puff of mist to leave her lips.
"I suppose." Kimi said, "That's what I thought too, at first."
Draig listened in silence, as Kimi took a slow sip and talked her mind.
"But I have grown out of my meek and shy self, you know? I think the first step to that was when I first visited the 'Dungeon'." Kimi explained. "In the past, I got pushed around a lot and didn't have the courage or need to fight back. So as a coping mechanism, I started enjoying that process. But now that's not the case anymore, you know? I changed, because he wanted me to."
A short silence later, Kimi explained further.
"I think time flows differently in each universe, so even though I have spent the last six months locked here, for the young master it may have been a day, or even a minute." Kimi theorised. "So I cannot leave my fate in his hands, even though I trust him, moreover when I have a job of my own to do. I am going to find them manually, by travelling to each universe they ended up in."
Kimi finished her tea and threw it out of the window, just as a blue portal opened in space and the cup vanished within it.
"I am the first 'wife'/'girl'/'harem member'/or whatever you wanna call it, that the young master made love with. So he naturally trusts me the most, and therefore handed me over with such an important mission. It falls upon me to find my juniors just as the young master told me to do." Kimi admitted. "I cannot stay meek and fearful, while he trusted me with such an important job."
After a long silence, Draig spoke again. ["You know, I already know all this?"]
Kimi giggled as her serious expression broke. "Let's just say I spoke to myself to affirm my will on what I am about to do today."
["Aha, that's right, today is the day…."]
Draig trailed off.
["I know you are, but I am asking again, are you sure you want to do this? One more death, and I can't guarantee that you'll retain any of your memories."]
Each death ate up more memories than the last death. Currently, her memories started after she joined the Hado Family. If she were to die one more time, the chances were high that she'll lose all her memories until this point. Worse, she would lose memories of herself but will retain the memories of Yuhei— the Yokai she had replaced the existence of— and therefore become a ghost of Yuhei.
"I am aware of the dangers, but I cannot just stay hiding. I just explained to you, why." Kimi said seriously. "Besides, I sent to you the remnant of my memory in packets. If I were to lose all my current memories, you'll just have to send those memory packets back to me. After all, you are barely affected by the memory erasure yourself."
As the soul stuck within the Boosted Gear, Draig–the Red Dragon Emperor–as well was affected by the memory erasure procedure that occurred upon each 'Restart'. However, since Draig was multiple millennia old, the erasure started from his oldest memories; memories that were already too vague to him. After all, even before meeting Kimi, Draig had forgotten why she started fighting her rival, Albion. So she wasn't actually badly affected by this.
["That's true, I suppose."] Draig admitted. ["Be careful, however, we are not sure if separating your memory from yourself would actually help. What if the memories got erased even from within the packets?"]
"I know, I know, I know better than to not be careful." Kimi sighed, as she walked away from the window and sat on the bed. "Though I say it's my duty as the First Wife, I would rather not lose all my memories of the young master in the process of finding the others. I became pretty selfish recently."
After chatting for a bit more when Kimi fully decided to do this, she took a deep breath and stood up.
"Lets go,"
Kimi's casual sleepwear changed, thinning out of existence, and got replaced with her 2B-dress.
In the last six months, Kimi wasn't just hiding.
In the last six months, Kimi had created her own spell formulas. Now, it was time to test them.
"To the Hero Faction."
To the [Annihilation Maker].
* * *
The Hero Faction was a part of a larger group called the Khaos Brigade. The Brigade was run by the 2nd strongest Dragon in history, the Dragon God of Infinity, Ophis.
The Hero Faction, however, was run by its leader Cao Cao. Currently, Cao Cao was talking to one of his faction mates.
Leonardo, the wielder of one of the top four Longinus.
As it was morning, the sun was just rising in the eastern sky. Far from the window, Cao Cao was sitting on a round table face to face with Leonardo, sipping coffee and listening to the latter's story.
Leonardo was a valuable part of the Faction, as he wielded potentially the strongest Longinus of all. So Cao Cao cared to listen to what he had to say, moreover since the usually quiet boy didn't ask for a talk.
"...So you are saying,"
Cao put down the cup of coffee as he frowned.
"You're having nightmares lately? About a blonde cat hunting you down?"
"Yes…" Leonardo nodded slowly. "I also feel like, sometimes, that I get possessed. As if someone else is seeing through my eyes, hearing through my ears."
"...."
"I think it's quite suspicious."
"How long has it been since you're feeling this way."
"A week?"
"You should have told me before." Cao Cao sighed a little before an annoyed yet serious expression took over his face. "It is certainly suspicious. I believe it's Yokai magic. The dream is where the Yokai locked its target on you. The latter feeling is probably when she used your eyes and ears to see and hear the things you were experiencing. Basically, for the last week, we were being spied on."
Leonardo frowned and Cao Cao saw his lips moving as if to apologize. Obviously, for such an organization like the Hero Faction to get spied on for seven days, it was a bad thing, and that could probably be avoided if Leonardo had reported this earlier.
"So–"
Even before Leonardo could finish his first word, the doorbell rang out with a 'Ding Dong!'.
"Hello? It's a Pizza delivery!"
""....?""
Pizza delivery? In a temple?
Both Cao and Leonardo immediately prepared for battle.
However, as they moved towards the door, they heard a ticking sound from behind them. They immediately turned around, realising the invader had teleported right behind them, but it was too late.
"Too late."
The same voice from before said, and as they both turned around, they found a green bomb greeting their face.
— Boom!
The bomb burst out, and both Cao Cao and Leonardo froze in their spot.
Frozen in time immemorial.
"Tada, it's a Time Bomb!"
* * *
Erasing her smile and playful personality, Kimi quickly grabbed the two people frozen in time.
A few minutes later, she used the same item to grab the faction's Vice Captain, Georg, and a member named Jeanne as well. Because their powers were interesting to her.
The item [Time Bomb] was one of the things she has created in the last six months of solitude. It was practically a time-version of the Power of Destruction, as this was a one-shot kill for anyone without proper resistance to it.
Currently, she had 67 [Time Bombs] left.
Kimi would have grabbed some other people too from this Hero Faction, but if she were to take too much time the Ouroboros Dragon, Ophis, would notice her shenanigans and come hunting for her.
So, Kimi needed to be quick and run with these four people.
Kimi opened a portal to her own dimension, a terrain filled with kans grass that bloomed under the blue sky. This dimension also was created in the last six months by Kimi herself.
Kimi threw the kidnapped individuals through the portal, one by one, and then she entered there herself. The moment before the portal closed, Kimi sensed the presence of a Super Dragon landing in the church.
Luckily, that fake Loli, Ophis, was too slow.
The next time this angry Ophis will meet this Kimi, this blonde cat will be beyond the Dragon's league.
* * *
The way Kimi extracted Issei's Boosted Gear, she did the same thing with the four people she kidnapped.
What she got was the Annihilation Maker, the True Longinus, the Dimension Lost, and lastly Blade Blacksmith.
Kimi quickly scanned the items with her magic to get a vague idea of them, though she already knew about them more than this.
===
Annihilation Maker: Grants its wielder the ability to create numerous creatures from their shadows, based on their imagination.
True Longinus: It is a bladed spear that is capable of killing Gods and Buddhas having been initially used by St. Longinus used to pierce Jesus Christ, which blessed the spear making it one of the holiest relics in existence. Can do more than whatever Holy relic you can think of. Can kill Gods, Buddhas and Divine Beings. It is extremely effective against Devils and Vampires.
Dimension Lost: It has the ability to create a special mist able to block any attack, as well as being able to transport anything inside of it into an artificial space. The mist can also be used to reinforce dimensions, even those of others such as Yasaka. The most powerful among Sacred Gears related to barriers and space.
Blade Blacksmith: Unlimited Blade Works.
===
"Now comes the hard part…." Kimi muttered. "To absorb four Longinus powers as my own."
Unlike with the Boosted Gear, she wouldn't be accepting these as her Longinus. She would extract their magic essence and then absorb it. It's much better that way, as any spear in her hand would become a True Longinus, and so on.
Kimi would have the same with the Boosted Gear, but she quite liked Draig at this point. That silly serious dragon was there for her when she was about to break. Also, without Draig her memory problem will stay as a problem.
["Great, now we have the Infinity Dragon after us. Let us celebrate!"] Draig laughed in her ears. ["How long will this absorbing process take, by the way?"]
"Let's see…" Kimi hummed. "Eight months. Though on the outside world, it will be two months because time flows differently in this Dimension."
["I see. You work fast."]
"Thanks. Always had a knack for these magical items." Kimi cleared her throat. "I think space, time, and magical item creation are my forte."
["Good, good. Keep up the good work, perhaps one day you'll be able to free me from here."]
"We'll see… hehe." Kimi's expression twisted before quickly returning to normal.
"Ahem, in any case, we'd be isolated here for now. Not coming out before I have all four of these powers, or I die by the hands of an angry loli. So I'll get to work quickly."
As Draig asked about her evil expression from a moment ago, Kimi sighed as she suppressed her horny once again.
Later, with a flick of her finger, Kimi created a Fortress of Ice using ice magic and then walked inside it.
* * *
Eight months passed in a jiffy within the dimension. At one point, Kimi left the dimension for just an hour to hunt for another single Longnius she had an interest in.
Kimi took the risk of leaving this dimension because Rias was about to bring an end to her Peerage. As it had then been a bit more than 6 months in the outside world, Rias was finally out of all cards and was forced to marry Riser Phoenix. This time around, Issei Hyuodou wasn't what he would have been in the original timeline, due to the lack of his Boosted Gear. So Rias' marriage was unavoidable, and the selfish girl in the end planned a mass suicide with her Peerage.
Fortunately, Kimi had seen such a future coming from a mile ahead and therefore after she had finally assimilated Annihilation Maker's power within herself, she had created miniature robotic monsters to spy on Rias left to notify her when such a time really came.
When the danger notification presented itself, Kimi rushed to find Gasper Vladi of Rias' peerage and stole his Longius that was the [Forbidden Balor View] which was a time-related Longnius.
'On a side note, Gasper is a girl in this universe…'
As for Rias and her peerage currently, they were all dead after Rias exploded her own body with the Power of Destruction.
'Alas, I cannot yet steal blood-line abilities… I should focus on making such a spell soon. Like the All-For-One quirk.'
But whatever the case may be, as eight months had passed within this dimension, Kimi was finally ready with the power of the four initial Longinus and the later addition of Gasper's Longinus powers all absorbed within herself.
"Phew,"
Kimi heaved a deep breath as she slumped on the floor on her back, countless cuts spread across her clothes.
"I nearly died so many times, haah."
["Tired already?"] Draig asked in her ears. ["This is just the start."]
"That's true, that's true…" Kimi sighed. "Haah, I guess it's time for the fight of life, huh? The Red Dragon and the White Dragon."
["Yes, indeed. It's time for you to absorb the Divine Dividing!"]
* * *
["That wasn't a fair fight! You used a cheat attack!"]
Kimi ignored Draig's complaints and quickly threw Vali's dead body out of her dimension, while a pair of blue-white wings rested in her hands.
Not long after Draig had suggested she fight Vali Lucifer, the current wielder of the Divine Dividing, Kimi had come out of her dimension to do exactly that. She lured Vali inside her dimension as soon as possible, and it actually wasn't a hard thing to do. She just said 'Let's go to a quiet place where nobody will bother our legendary fight.'
After which, Kimi just grabbed a Spear– thus activating the True Longius part of her power, which she used to easily overwhelm Vali who was very weak to this power's holy attacks, as he was a part devil himself. The fight after that was easily dealt with and Kimi just slipped her spear through his heart, killing him effortlessly.
"Sorry… his face reminded me of the young master." Kimi apologised. "I know they look more than a bit different, but you know what mental state I am in right now…"
["..."]
"Draig?"
["..."]
"Hey Draig, c'mon, don't be like this."
["..."]
"...Oh, for fuck's sake."
For the next few weeks, Draig didn't speak to Kimi.
* * *
To end this eternal rivalry with an underhanded, cheat attack that he was weak to, even though Kimi had other powers to defeat Vali in the normal way… It's not weird that Draig was mad.
Kimi soon realised and accepted that it was all her fault. So, she made a decision.
"...I am going to restart." Kimi suddenly said after waking up one morning.
Though only silence answered her, for the first time in weeks, soon Draig spoke.
["You don't have to."] Her deep voice boomed inside Kimi's head. ["I am just a random beast you met at the street, it's foolish to sacrifice yourself for me."]
"You are a friend, you know?" Kimi said. "I have yet to assimilate the Divine Divide gear, so it should still be present on Vali in the next restart– unlike the other five I already assimilated within me."
["..."]
Draig stayed silent. Temptation… That's what she was feeling right now. If Kimi did what she said she would do, then perhaps there would be a more justified, satisfactory end to her aeons of rivalry.
However, Draig soon rejected the offer.
["I can't do this to you, Kimi. You just said so yourself… you are a friend."] Draig went silent after admitting something that was embarrassing to her. ["I don't want to see you lose all your memories and break down just because you want to fulfil my selfish desire."]
Kimi stayed silent in her spot once again, before she smiled brightly.
"Draig, today I promise to you that I'll give you the fair fight you deserve," she said before she cheered aloud. "Since the problem started because Vali reminded me of the young master, he will take responsibility. He actually has Divine Dividing powers himself, I will fight him for you to grant you the fight you deserve!"
Despite her current mood, Draig broke out laughing. ["You are gonna fight your lover for me? I feel entitled, moreover, after seeing your memories."]
"Eh, it will be a consensual fight– wait, you opened my memory packets?!" Kimi's eyes widened. "I told you to not do that! It took me months to assemble them in the right order, you know??"
["Huh? No, no, I didn't open them, I am saying how I read bits of your memories when we first met, and after. I didn't touch the packets."]
Kimi sighed. "Ah, I see. Sorry, I am dumb in the morning."
["Haha, I know that by now. In any case, you should finish assimilating the Divine Divide gear. It's about time for our second round with Great Red."]
"Yeah, yeah," Kimi yawned as she stretched her arms. "But before that, let's pay a visit to Sirzech. It's time for our 3rd round? 4th round? I forgot. Anyway, I am gonna kill him and steal his Power of Destruction. I made a spell to do that, already."
* * *
Sirzechs Lucifer was going through depression.
Recently, his beloved sister whom he had forbidden feelings for (though he'll never admit it outloud) had passed away, having committed group suicide with her peerage.
The other three Satans had told him to take a break from official work, and that's what she was doing right now. He was spending time with his family, in an attempt to cure his depression, but excluding Grayfia, everyone else in the family was more-or-less as broke as he was. It was a rather bad idea to keep multiple depressed people together.
So, Grayfia proposed something for everyone.
"A family trip…?"
"A vacation." Grayfia said when Sirzech asked slowly. "I am telling this to you first, and after that we will go tell the others if you find this reasonable."
"Mhm…"
"It will be good therapy." Grayfia insisted. "Millicas as well is suffering from the loss of his aunt, too. At this rate, his mental growth will be badly affected."
At first, Sirzechs was about to reject her offer— however, when he heard this, he hesitated. He had a son to look after, too… Perhaps, he should do it at least for Millicas?
Sirzechs sighed. "Alright. Let's do it, then. Huawei, is it?"
Grayfia smiled. "Thank you, m—"
Grayfia froze, her smile stretched and her mouth open as her words paused in time.
"Grayfia?" Sirzech frowned. "What are you doing?"
"Whoa, you are actually not affected."
Suddenly, a voice said as Sirzechs went full alert. Turning around, he found an unknown Yokai grinning at him while a blonde tail danced behind her majestically.
"I am here to pay you back for what you did to me," the Yokai said. "Be ready."
"I don't even know who you are." Sirzech replied, indeed ready for a battle.
* * *
For the first time, Kimi managed to defeat Sirzechs without dying herself, though that was to be expected with the current power boosts she had.
The harder process was to run back to her dimension and then extract the Power of Destruction from within Sirzechs. Her spell wasn't as fast and efficient as All-for-One and therefore it took quite an effort from her side to properly get the power out of Sirzechs and into her own body, registering it into her soul so that she could keep using it in the next possible restarts.
Finally, she was ready to face Great Red once and for all.
"We are going to ignore the Dragon Loli of Infinity and just jump to Great Red. I am going to absorb some of his magic after defeating him, and slowly over a few months absorb his powers entirely. With that huge power boost, I should be able to force the Dimension Lost gear to find the people I am looking for."
["Seems like a good idea, but be careful. Great Red is a monster, even with your current strength it would be a challenge."]
Upon such a comment from Draig, Kimi opened her Tier info.
[Kimi Sugihara – Tier 29]
Great Red as well, was Tier 29.
However, according to what Neji had told her a long time ago, there were four sub-rankings within each Tier, something that Kimi's spell couldn't see. Therefore, Great Red might just be stronger than her.
Though the other way around was also possible.
"Let's go."
* * *
37 days and 4 hours.
That was how long Kimi and Great Red's fight lasted.
At last, she won.
As she laid in the void between worlds, Kimi's chest heaved up and down as she huffed for breath. She was using time reversal spells on herself to reverse the injuries she had suffered.
Kimi stayed like that for a long while before returning to her healed self.
Then, she grabbed the remnant of Great Red's body— that was currently just the size of a mere house— and then teleported back into her dimension.
As she left, Kimi felt distant gazes fall upon her— coming from the countless worlds that existed in this verse beyond the planet Earth. If she were to guess, this universe would be in chaos in no time as each world would invade the other one, now that Great Red wasn't guarding the Dimensional Gap.
For a moment, Kimi wished she could feel pity for them.
Then she remembered she's been horny for ages, so the world could go fuck itself if only she could relieve her desires sooner.
Thus, Kimi started to assimilate Great Red's powers within herself, slowly, one at a time, as she truly started to grow into a dragon.
* * *
"What now?"
It's been three months since that incident, and Kimi was somewhat done with the process of absorbing Great Red's powers into herself.
"I think I can initiate a Dimensional Jump?"
["It should be possible, yes."] Draig agreed. ["The outside world is at chaos right now, we better leave before any of those eldritch horrors figure out a way to break into this dimension too."]
"True, true… Let's do it then."
Kimi took in a deep breath and then called out on her power of Dimension Lost; which was far stronger than ever with Kimi's current [Tier 33] prowess.
"Bring me to… Neji Hado." Kimi called out.
At first, she wanted to go for Nejire, and then Momo, Rumi, and lastly Ryuko. However, wouldn't it be far better to just find Neji and then find the others together? Besides, she would love to have some alone time with him after so long. For a while now, he's always been occupied with girls here and there.
Kimi waited for a moment, but no mist devoured her. Usually, when she wanted to teleport using this gear, she called out the name and mist came out of her body to devour her. The next thing she knew, she was already there where she wanted to be. But it didn't happen this time…
Kimi gulped.
Could it still not traverse her beyond this universe? Even with all the powers she had?
'No wait… let's provide more details…'
"Ah, find Neji Hado! A white-haired guy with a charismatic personality… ah, blue eyes, popular with ladies and… and–"
Kimi disappeared from her spot as pink mist devoured her form.
* * *
In the very next instant, Kimi found herself floating in a clear sky. Her senses, and her magical scan, all told her that this wasn't the DxD world.
"Let's go!"
Kimi cheered aloud!
"But where is the young master–"
Kimi's question was interrupted by a sly, slow voice.
"Hey there, beautiful lady."
A deep voice sounded out as Kimi turned around to find a blindfolded man waving at her, while his white hair fluttered against the wind.
Kimi immediately recognized the man.
"I believe you knocked on the wrong door," he said. "Can you please leave this world?"
As Kimi slowly facepalmed, Gojo Satoru spoke as he smiled kindly.
Thus, continued Kimi's Perfect Run, where perhaps she may or may not find Neji in her Time.
**
**
**
Master4thWall: Apologies for the spelling mistakes, wrote this all in one sitting. It's been five hours.
Kimi is moving very carefully compared to last time, but all paths to Neji are still leading to zero even now. At least, she is yet to slip up and fall in front of the two Super Gods, which is a good thing. Right?
Also, we are at Chapter 300!!!
—
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